10 days without power: Pocono residents can't hold out much longer

Thursday

Nov 8, 2012 at 12:01 AM

Middle Smithfield Township resident Anthony Tumminia is afraid Hurricane Sandy just might send him back to the hospital. As of Wednesday evening, Tumminia was one of 131 Met-Ed customers in Pike and Monroe counties still without power

CHRISTINA TATU

Middle Smithfield Township resident Anthony Tumminia is afraid Hurricane Sandy just might send him back to the hospital.

Tumminia was released from the hospital two weeks ago after being treated for bronchitis that turned into pneumonia.

A few days later, on Oct. 29, Hurricane Sandy hit, and Tumminia's electric has been out ever since.

As of Wednesday evening, Tumminia was one of 131 Met-Ed customers in Pike and Monroe counties still without power. All PPL Electric and Utilities customers in the Poconos had their power restored by Wednesday.

"I'm starting to show some symptoms like I did before," Tumminia said as he stood in the dark kitchen of his Winona Lakes home.

His sore throat, shortness of breath and pain in his right lung, which had been affected by the pneumonia, are coming back. Tumminia also developed a heart murmur while in the hospital.

Doctors think it was a combination of his illness and the stress of the situation.

Tumminia, who is on disability, has a difficult time getting around and also requires a nebulizer for asthma and a CPAP, or Continuous Positive Airway Pressure machine, to treat his sleep apnea.

A family friend let Tumminia borrow a generator so he could use the machines, but by Wednesday he had spent more than $300 in gasoline.

"I can't afford it anymore," he said.

The power briefly flickered on Sunday night, but around 10:30 p.m., the Tumminias and their neighbors heard a loud bang, and it went out again, said Anthony's daughter, Marisa Tumminia.

At 7:30 Wednesday morning, they were able to reach a Met-Ed representative, who told them crews would be out by 8 a.m. to repair the blown transformer. By 3 p.m., workers had yet to arrive.

"Don't promise us and tell us you are minutes away and then don't come," Marisa Tumminia said.

The family explained the elder Tumminia's medical issues to a Met-Ed representative, who told them his doctor's office would need to fax a medical letter in order for Tumminia's residence to be considered a priority.

On Wednesday afternoon, an employee at Doctor Daryl Kim's office in Blairstown, N.J., said she was still trying to get through to a Met-Ed representative to get the fax number.

The Tumminias' neighbors were also without power Wednesday.

"I don't want to leave the house and go to a hotel because I don't know what's on in the house and what isn't," said neighbor Lisa Woods, if the power is restored.

Woods lost more than $300 worth of food in her refrigerator and said she would be reluctant to replace it even if the power were back on because of the storm that was forecast Wednesday into today.

Neighbor Ken Anders was told electric would be restored by 6 p.m. Wednesday.

Besides the food he lost, going out to eat "has been a real killer. It's expensive," he said.

"As we've said repeatedly, we have a crew assigned to every outage that exists right now from Hurricane Sandy, and it's our intention to have everyone who was affected by Sandy restored tonight," he said Wednesday.

Surgeoner did not have exact numbers, but said damage from Sandy was "much more severe" than the damage that occurred with Hurricane Irene in August 2011 and the snowstorm of October 2011.

"It may be the worst storm damage we've had. Compared to the number of poles we replaced and the wire that was put back up, this storm far surpasses both storms in 2011," he said.

Surgeoner added the work is also very labor intensive.

"When you are in an area that's full of trees and you are working on back roads, in some cases dirt roads, it's very time consuming."